Alfa Bank requests $400 million state loan

Alfa Bank, one of Russia's largest private banks, has requested a maximum $400 million subordinated loan from state bank VEB and expects shareholders to inject a further $400 million, its president said on Friday. "We have submitted an order for the subordinated loan and we will receive it. We will take a maximum $800 million, half of it from our shareholders," Pyotr Aven told reporters.
VEB, or Vnesheconombank, has been entrusted to supply subordinated loans to private banks up to a maximum 15 percent of the recipient bank's capital, provided the bank's shareholders undertake to inject the same amount. Aven said Alfa Bank's capital was about $2.5 billion. He said the bank did not plan any major spending or staff cuts this year as a result of the global financial crisis. "There will not be any radical, revolutionary cuts in wages, bonuses or people," Aven said.